“Your breathing is your greatest friend. Return to it all your troubles and you will find your comfort and guidance.” – The Teaching of Buddhist Master

Breathing is important. It gives us life. It becomes affected when anything is out of balance in our lives. Just think about it for a moment (and breathe). When we are sad, we breathe differently. When we are sick, we breathe differently. When we are happy, we breathe differently. When we are stressed, we breathe differently. We breathe differently when we are sleeping depending on what kind of dreams we are having. It’s quite interesting when you think about it. So, it would make sense that in order for us to live in peace and have the most clarity, our breathing would be a key in helping to make that happen.

When people are in a situation that is causing distress, often the first things they are told is to ‘breathe deeply.’ This will cause the system to calm down and the person to get into a place where things aren’t quite as stressed. In BodyTalk I often have people breathe deeply because the breath is what helps the brain scan the body for the imbalances. In fact there’s a built in tool in BodyTalk that won’t let me go further unless I remind people to breathe deeply if it is really important within their session. Kind of neat, huh? Anyway, our breathing is important to us and keeping us balanced.

Breathing has a process within our bodies that moves everything from head to toe. When we breathe in our head tilts forward slightly, our lungs (chest area) expands and pushes our shoulders back, our stomach area pushes forward (diaphragm), and our hips rock backwards which causes our legs to slightly roll outward. Granted, these are all very slight movements, but movements nonetheless. So, when that motion gets off kilter, so do other things in our body.

The diaphragm is also the halfway house to releasing our emotions. When we aren’t breathing properly, our diaphragm isn’t allowed to push those emotions out. Therefore our emotions get stuck inside as well, also causing issues to surface as something that’s physical. The breathing cycle is important to help us release these emotions.

So, now what do we do? Since stress is the main culprit of throwing glitches in our breathing cycle, we need to figure out what to do about that. When we aren’t making time for ourselves we will get stressed. When we get stressed we breathe differently. When we breathe differently imbalances in our bodies occur. When imbalances occur we will then see the physical manifestations show up as illnesses. Are you seeing the connection?

We must make time for ourselves. We must breathe. “When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, when the debts are high and the funds are low….” Really – breathe. Breathe it all in. Take several deep breaths and just be in that moment. It is at that moment when you will see what you need to do next. When we are in the moment of panic, stress, sleep deprivation, even excitement, breathing is the way we can bring ourselves to a place where we know what the next step is to take. It really is that simple. Who knew?

So, the moral of this blog is to (say it with me) just breathe. Want more clarity? Breathe. Want better health? Start with breathing. Want more in life? Breathe. You will get the answers you need when you start to breathe.

-written by Kristen Scanlon (animal communicator & Certified BodyTalk Practitioner) owner of Talk Pawsitive, LLC and co-owner of The Healing Loft, LLC. You can reach her at healing@thehealingloftmpls.com or talkpawsitive@gmail.com